Port Forward

A router is like a post office. When you send a letter to someone, it first arrives at the post office and then it is sent to the recipient. Port forwarding means telling the post office (router) where the letter (data) should be sent. This way the router knows that it has to send the incoming Tunngle traffic right to your pc (and not to another one in the same network).

Tunngle Port Forward

Do you need to Port Forward?

Semi-serious Port Forward Legend

At the bottom right of the Tunngle Window you will find a small smiley icon.
This helpful indicator is designed to help you understand if you need a port forward:

If you see a happy green face then you can skip reading this page. You should be able to join networks and to connect to others without further action. If, by chance, you still see many red X when you join a network, then your router might have an issue and you should check the last points of our connection troubleshooting section and our Router Compatibility page.

If you see a yellow neutral face then Tunngle detected that the port is not opened. This is usually not a problem and, unless you're seeing many red X when you join a network, it can usually be ignored. If you want to maximize the ability to connect to others you should continue reading this page (see the Advantages section).

If you see red sad face then Tunngle detected that a Port Forward is required in order to optimize the connectivity (without it you should be able to connect to people that have a green smiley). If you are a cable user or if you do not have a router you can try to contact your Internet Service Provider Support to ask if they can open the port for you. Please also check that the Tunngle Executables are allowed in your Antivirus and Firewall.

If you see an orange exclamation mark then Tunngle detected that your router is not working properly. In this case a Port Forward doesn't work and Tunngle will work in Limited Connectivity mode (you should be able to connect to people that have a green smiley). Please check our Router Compatibility page to see if there is anything you can do to solve the problem or contact your Router Manufacturer support. As an alternative you can consider testing with a different router.

Advantages

Although Tunngle works without the need to port forward on most systems, there are some advantages if you set up a port forward.
An open port state maximizes the possibility to establish connections with other players. This means that you will be able to connect to players that cannot receive inbound connections. In other words, if your friend hasn't access to his router, setting a forward on your side can help him connect to you.

Supported Methods

There are several alternative ways to forward incoming traffic to your PC:

Please note that these are alternative ways to do the same thing. Some routers might bug if more than one method is used at once. Please be sure that you do not mix them.

How To

Automatic UPnP Port Forward

Tunngle provides a simple way to configure your Port Forward automatically.
If you are not familiar with how routers work or if you like it simple, your best option is to go to Tunngle->Settings->Options and check Upnp.
Tunngle will then attempt to configure your port forward automatically on the next restart.
If you get the UPnP error it means that your current system configuration does not support UPnP as a Port forwarding method. In this case go back to Tunngle->Settings->Options and uncheck UPnP.
In case you are not able to login remember that you can start Tunngle in Off-line Mode.

Please note that Tunngle UPnP depends on the following Windows Services:

SSDP Discovery

UPnP Device Host

You can use the Community Troubleshooter to fix this.
Check that your Firewall allows svchost.exe to make outbound connections.
Also if you use UPnP on a certain port please verify that there is not already a port forward rule for the same port in your router.

Manual Port Forward

Required data

Configuring the Port Forward means telling to your router that the UDP data (the letter in our example) that arrives on the External Port 11155 should be forwarded to your PC on the same Internal Port.
Imagine that you have more than one mailbox each painted in a different color. In our post office analogy:

Protocol: You can figure the protocol as the letter type

Destination IP: You can figure the Destination IP as your street address

External Port: You can figure the external port as the letter envelope color

Internal Port: You can figure the internal port as the color of the mailbox you want the letter to be delivered to

You could set a rule that a green business letter would go straight into your green mailbox, while a red business letter could go into your red mailbox.

IP Address

An IP Address is some sort of ID that identifies your network devices (just like a street address identifies your home). Your PC has one while your router has a different one:

To find your router IP and your PC IP go to Network Connections, right click on the Internet Adapter (the one connected to the router), select Status and click Details:

Your PC address is the IPv4 (IP on Windows Xp) Address.

Your router address is usually the IPv4 Gateway.

Static IP Address

An IP Address can be either Static or Dynamic. A Static IP Address is an Address that doesn't change with time. A Dynamic IP Address changes with time.
Your router must know where to forward incoming data. If your computer LAN IP Address changes the data won't be forwarded to the right address. In our analogy, if you move to another address, the post office (router) will send the letter (data) to the old address and you will be missing all the fun.

To set a static IP go to Network Connections, right click on the Internet Adapter (the one connected to the router), select Status and click Details. Now take a screenshot of the window and save it somewhere on your hard-drive . Now go to Network Connections, right click on the Internet Adapter, select Properties, select Internet Protocol Version 4 and click Properties.
Now look at the previous screenshot and fill in the data exactly as you see it in the screenshot. Click ok and you're done.

Tunngle Port

Tunngle by default uses UDP port 11155. You can change port from Tunngle->Settings->Options.
Please verify that the Port Forward checkbox is ticked if you intend to forward.

Accessing the router

Routers usually have a web interface - that looks and can be opened just like any regular website - which you can access by typing the router address in the browser address bar. If it asks for the password check your router manual for it (often Username: admin Password: admin).
Finding the Port Forward section in your router shouldn't be difficult (another name for it might be Virtual Server).

Creating the Rule

Usually you should see and Add button that allows you to create a new Port Forward rule.
Once you pressed it a web form should open up. This is the data required to fill it:

Protocol: UDP

External Port: 11155

Internal Port: 11155

Destination IP: Your PC IP (e.g. 192.168.1.2)

Always remember, your router is a simple animal. You are telling it that incoming UDP traffic on port 11155 (Tunngle traffic) should be sent to your PC. It is simpler than it seems. You can imagine UDP being the letter type, your IP address being your street and the ports being the letter color matching rule.

Step by Step Guides

You can find Step by Step guides for almost any router model at PortForward.com.

Multiple PCs

If you want to use Tunngle from more than one PC in your home network you need to create one account for each PC and do a different port forward for each.
The procedure is identical except for the destination IP Address and the Port which change for each PC.
Be sure that you choose different ports. For example you can forward port 11155 to PC A, port 11160 to PC B and so on.
You will have to set the port in Tunngle->Settings->Options. Do NOT use port 11156!

Two routers

If you are behind two routers you need to forward traffic from the first one to the second one and then from the second one to your PC. An alternative is to put your second router in the first router DMZ so that all traffic is forwarded to the second router (the second router IP Address can usually be found in the LAN status of the first one). Then you can forward from the second router to your PC as you would do if you had only one router. More info here.

ISP Routers

Sometimes Internet Service Providers (like for example some Cable Internet Providers) put "routers" between you and the Internet. These "routers" can only be controlled by them.
An easy way to tell is to compare your router status WAN IP with your public IP. If they do not match then there is probably some "routing" going on.
If this is your case, you can give your Internet Service Provider a phone call and ask if they can open/forward port 11155 UDP for you.
As an alternative you can try to ask them to give you what they usually call "Public IP" (which means your Internet devices will get a more "direct" access to the Internet) but please be aware that some providers might charge you for that.

Port Forward Test

The right way to check if the Port Forward has been correctly set up is via Tunngle->Settings->Options->Test.
PF Checker and other programs won't give the right result since the Tunngle port is reserved for Tunngle.

Game Ports

You don't need to forward any other port to play games on Tunngle.
When you are running Tunngle, all data goes through the Tunngle port.

Tunngle is like a big smart pipe that links different systems. It is like if you plugged a new network card in your PC and this network card was linked with all the other PCs that you see in the network.
You can host/join games over the Tunngle adapter as you would do on a normal LAN without any further step.